582 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Aug. 1. 



lye recommended by Miss Wilson would do as 

 well as the soap and boiling water. It would 

 do better for small things like separators; but 

 large things, like wax-boilers and pails to cool 

 wax in, must be scrubbed. I have found that 

 the large pails I use to cool wax in when puri- 

 fying get so coated that the cakes refuse to 

 come out, even though there is quite a differ- 

 ence in the size of the top and bottom. But 

 after giving them a good scrubbing with the 

 brush, as above, there is no more trouble for 

 some time. Any one who has fussed fifteen or 

 twenty minutes with a cake of wax that will 

 not come out, can appreciate this. It is the 

 little annoyances that waste our time and spoil 

 our temper. 



The outlook in Wisconsin is very gloomy in- 

 deed. I estimate the loss on wintering and 

 springing at 40 per cent, and loss on the remain- 

 ing (50 per cent, by bad condition, 30 per cent 

 more, leaving less than half the bee force of 

 last fall. The season is at least four weeks 

 late, and still the rains continue. Clover is 

 largely killed by last year's drouth and winter 

 exposure, so all we have to look forwai'd to is 

 the basswood, which we are hoping to get all 

 right. C. A. .Hatch. 



Ithaca, Wis., June 7. 



THE WEST ftUEEN-CELL PROTECTOR. 



HOW THEY MAY BE USED FOE liEAKlXO 

 yUEENS. 



I am running six apiaries this summer, and 

 get just about swarms enough to furnish me 

 with what increase and choice queen-cells I 

 want. These I carefully cut out and place in 

 the cell-protectors and cages attached; and 

 when I arrive at any out-yard I always have on 

 hand a fine lotof young virgin queensall hatched, 

 and in cages — sometimes 15 on one comb. I use 

 the bestof these where I want them; and if they 

 are very choice, and I want to save more of 

 them, I just break up the hive that has done 

 the hatching, placing only one comb of bees 

 and one of the queens let loose upon the comb, 

 in an empty hive. I shut the hive up, and 

 carry it where I want it to stand. I then open 

 the entrance >.2 inch wide. 8o I keep on until 

 the combs are used up, leaving one on the 

 stand where the queens were hatched. 



Now, Mr. Root, you will see that this hatch- 

 ing all of these queens was done by the parent 

 hive that had cast a swarm five or six days be- 

 fore the cells were caged; and by the time the 

 young queens are hatch-^d there are a great 

 many young bees hatched too. We thus have 

 a hive full of young bi'es that have never been 

 outside of the hive to mark the location of their 

 home, and they are just the ones to make the 

 nuclei of. as they will stay where they are put 

 and needed. These nuclei must have some 

 honey and brood, so that the bees will neither 

 starve nor swarm out when the young queens 

 leave their hives to mate witli the drones. 

 Other hives that have cast swarms, and whose 

 cells are not desirable to save, make good 

 nuclei after their cells have been destroyed, 

 and treated the same as the ones j List described, 

 with the exception that each nucleus is given a 

 choice virgin queen hatchi'd elsewiiere. I leave 

 the queen in the cage, and pack one end of the 

 cage full of hard queen candy. These young 

 bees will receive the queens. iSfow. at the time 

 the nuclei are made, or at any time after the 

 work is done, if they have only one frame of 

 bees (two would be a little better, especially if 

 the weather is cool), a division-board should be 

 placed at the side of the frame of bees, or an- 

 other comb and a frame of brood from other 



hives. If increase is desired, keep adding brood 

 taken from other hives as fast as there are bees 

 enough to care for it, and these nuclei will soon 

 be strong colonies. When preferred, the queens 

 may be used elsewhere as soon as they are lay- 

 ing without adding to the strength of the nuclei, 

 and more queens can then be mated in these 

 same nuclei. After the queens have been taken 

 from the nuclei, a queen-cell can be given to 

 each one at any time with perfect safety by 

 placing the cell in the spiral wire cell-protector, 

 and placing one in each nucleus, on the side of 

 the comb, of course. The nuclei must not be 

 allowed to raise a queen from their own brood; 

 and any cells being started that would hatch 

 before the one in the protector, should be de- 

 stroyed at the time the cell is introduced. 



I keep the age of every queen I own, marked 

 on the hive; and at any time I find a queen 

 condemned on account of age or any other 

 cause I mark it down on the hive and on my 

 book: and when I have some of these choice 

 queen-cells on hand at the right age, I cut 

 them out and place them in the cell-protectors. 

 I then open the hives that have the condemned 

 queens, find and kill them, and introduce the 

 cells before the hives ai'e closed. The cells are 

 peifectly safe. I look again after it is time for 

 the queens to be laying without doubt; and if 

 any queen should happen to be lost in mating, 

 etc.. I then go to a nucleus and get a laying 

 queen and introduce her. 



All who practice taking away the queens for 

 a short time during the swarming season, and 

 then running in a virgin queen later, will find 

 that they can very easily get all of the queens 

 very cheaply by the use of the spiral wire 

 queen-cell protectors and cages; and from one 

 to twenty virgin queens can be hatched in each 

 hive that is being run for box or extracted hon- 

 ey without a queen being loose in the hive. It 

 is not necessary that there be food in the bot- 

 tom of the cages in hatching queens, as there 

 should be no loose queen in a hive that is 

 hatching young queens, and then the bees will 

 feed and provide for all of the young queens in 

 the cages better than we can. If, however, 

 there is one queen loose in the hive, the bees 

 will not care for the young queens, but will kill 

 them if they could; and if they can get a hold 

 of a wing or a leg of these caged queens they 

 will pull it off. 



But, to return. Suppose you have one or 

 twenty queens hatched in a queenless hive. 

 Let one queen out. and slie is safely introduced 

 every time. Do what you please with the rest. 

 It is better to have ninety queens to spare, and 

 use the best and kill the rest, than to lack ten 

 queens and have to use some you had rather 

 not, because you have to use all you have on 

 hand and then lack ten, N. D. West. 



Middieburg, N. Y., July I.'). 



[We have been using the West queen-cell 

 protectors with much satisfaction for two sea- 

 sons in queen-rearing.] 



OLMSTEAD'S STRAY STRAWS. 



the aveatheu; honey-ju.mbles, etc. 



It's rained, It's stormed: small lakes it's formed; 



It's hailed, then rained some more; 

 While men with 1)1 ues and low-cut shoes 



Have riiiped and raved and tore. 



Well, this is the ever-glorious Fourth, and, to 

 my great surpi'ise, it is as cleai' as a bell, and the 

 bees are just pouring in with honey, while for 

 the last two hours I have been reading Glean- 

 ings. I don't think I ever more enjoyed read- 

 ing. The last number I think unusually good. 



